Alpha Mesh recoloring glitches - RESOLVED
IronBeard:
Really sorry, I posted this elsewhere in the wrong section in my haste.
Anyway, this seems to be the right spot. I have a problem with recolors of alpha mesh textures and would really appreciate any thoughts on the matter. It is probably easier to show you what I mean with screen shots, but I can't get any images to load on the page!
Basically I use a lot of alpha meshes in my game, many by Bloom. But very occasionally, with Sims wearing my recolors, the game glitches and the alpha textures black out. Everything slows down and even sound effects start to echo. As soon as I get the Sims to change into non-alpha outfits, everything goes back to normal again.
"Ah, it's your video card" I hear you say, and there may be some truth in that; the GMA950 was not the best choice Apple ever made, meaning I am one of those poor unfortunates with no fish in my fish tank!
However, I think the main problem is the way that the Mac version of BodyShop renders texture packages because any original texture packages I downloaded with the meshes work just fine; they never ever glitch.
Having made that discovery, I decided to transfer my outfit packages and their original graphics as PNG files to a Windows computer with SimPE installed. I used build DXT to replace the graphics in the packages and this solved the glitching problem when they were re-imported into my game. Great!
However, although the packages (and the game) are now stable, I have noticed a feint white edge, particularly on the 'hem line' of skirts that was not visible on the original BodyShop produced packages. This is only noticeable on short dark skirt textures, especially if the outfit includes dark leg cover (tights and stockings) or with darker skin tones.
I've tried replacing the alpha channel as well as the texture, but that didn't help.
I've tried saving a copy/saving as with SimPE and that didn't help either.
I've even tried clicking a few options that were a total mystery to me... yep, a waste of time!
Is there no way to get rid of that white hem line? Will I have to abandon all the short navy skirts I made for my schoolies, have them wear white instead?
BlooM:
screeny?
IronBeard:
Well, I couldn't get links to my iDisk to work here so I've opened a PhotoBucket a/c just for you!
This is how they look most of the time:
This is how the glitch appears:
This is with a non-glitching Bloom texture:
And this is the white line at the hem after build DXT:
I hope it's a bit clearer what I mean.
BlooM:
with the glitches you mean the outfit becomming completly black?
No idea why that happens....
The white line at the hem is the layer alpha(white) exceeding the texture itself i think.
If you build new textures then use DXT3 or DXT5, not DXT1.
DXT1 doesn't support transparancy wich could cause the outfits becomming black.
IronBeard:
Thank you for replying, Bloom.
Quote from: BlooM on September 13, 2010, 02:01:50 pm
with the glitches you mean the outfit becomming completly black?
No idea why that happens....
No, but I know when it's likely to occur: if my computer has been busy for any length of time with image/video applications, or after using a media server or BitTorrent client - anything using a background daemon. I've long since developed the habit of rebooting before I play TS2 which has reduced the frequency of glitches. In fact, in order to test the stability of my SimPE edits, it took me three days to induce a glitch, which I did by having CS3 Bridge scan a large folder of images in the background while I ran the game.
Quote
The white line at the hem is the layer alpha(white) exceeding the texture itself i think.
That seems logical. However, I am always very careful to produce a clipping mask from the exact same texture I am using, and rebuilding the alpha channel in SimPE made no difference at all. I even tried increasing the length of the texture image by a couple of pixels and leaving the alpha as it was, but that white line was still there.
Quote
If you build new textures then use DXT3 or DXT5, not DXT1.
DXT1 doesn't support transparancy wich could cause the outfits becomming black.
I've no idea how BodyShop builds these textures, they look great but they glitch. All of my edits in SimPE are done DXT5, they don't glitch and most look great. It's just these short, very dark items that show the white line.
But I have noticed that some darkish skirts of a similar length show no trace of white edging at all. Notice that neither the fringed skirt or the denim one are affected, though they were built DXT5, just like the navy skirt on the right which does have the white edge (it looks 10 times worse in the game!).
So I wonder if it is something to do with the texture itself, that irregular edges or a busy surface texture work better. Maybe the edge pixels on the dark skirt line up in such a way that it fools SimPE into treating them as part of the alpha... thus the white edging is actually part of the mesh not picking up the texture, if that makes sense.
I must admit, I'm floundering in the dark a bit here, so I shall just have to keep on re-working the packages until something clicks.
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